Receptive

Walking out into the courtyard I found Mabel sitting on the ground awaiting my arrival. I struggled to figure out how to tell her what the note contained without exposing everything. "Mabel we will need to speed up our training. Bad things are coming and I fear we are not ready for them." I said to her as I walked up and she turned towards me sharply. Her eyes were glazed over as she grabbed ahold of my wrist hard, little spots of blood pricking my skin from her nails. I jumped and became fearful; I had never seen her this way. "Uh, Mabel are you alright?" I asked hesitantly. "When fire meets soldier's bloodshed, the world will collapse in on itself if the girl with the green eyes is not alive. Fear the witch for she is powerful enough to rewrite the past." The words came from Mabel's mouth but sounded like they were echoing around us in an unfamiliar deep voice. Mabel's eyes returned to normal and she abruptly let go of my arm, blood ran from the cuts she had made with how strong her grip had been. My brain was running on overdrive, knowing that what she had said was about me. "Oh, Clara. I did not know you were here already! Are you ready to start our training session?" She asked me excitedly, her whole demeanor changing. I did not reply, instead, I stared at her in confusion. "Do you not remember what just happened and what you just said?" She cocked her head at me and shook her head, "I did not say anything, I was just sitting here waiting for you to arrive." Then a few seconds later, a knowing look crossed her face as she realized what I had been saying. "I get visions sometimes; I do not remember them nor do I remember having them. That would explain why my head hurts. What did I say to you while my eyes were glazed?" She wearily questioned as she rubbed her temples. "You grabbed me and said something about a girl with green eyes." I relayed to her, sitting down next to her. She nodded with comprehension and spoke with vigor, "Yes I have seen that vision in my dreams. As we get closer to it happening the universe shows it to me over and over again so I do not forget our goal. It is why I have been training and teaching you as much as I can every session. The only things left to teach you are how to enchant things, spell cast things, and potion making." The sound of all of that excited me, potion making was what I was most interested in.

I looked all around us at the various flowers and plants in the courtyard. "Why are we in the courtyard instead of the ballroom?" Mabel smiled at me knowingly. "We are going to enchant some of these plants." Excitement filled me at the prospect of learning enchantment. "When you want to enchant something, you pull the power to your hands and then guide it toward the thing you want to enchant. Then you have to will it to stay there with the intent you want. When an enchantment is broken, you will feel that little bit of magic used return back to you. When you break another witch's enchantments, you will send your magic and then picture their magic bucking beneath the weight of yours until it snaps and floods out." She explained. "What should I enchant and what should I make it do?" I eagerly asked, avoiding telling her that I already knew how to break enchantments. She laughed at my enthusiasm and scratched her head, "Enchant that tree over there to smack me with a branch every time I walk past it." I called my magic to my palms and bright green light swirled over them. I then directed it into the ancient tree in front of us and it flew away on its destined path. Once it was settled into the tree, I whispered what I wanted it to do and watched the entire thing glow green for a second as the enchantment took place. Little remnants of green light returned to my palms, but not nearly as much as what went into the tree. I was astonished at how amazing it felt to see my magic remain somewhere like I was leaving my mark. A slow clap sounded from behind, startling us. I turned to see John standing in the doorway of the courtyard entrance watching intently. "Just ignore him, we do not need distractions," Mabel said to me firmly. I turned back around and watched her stroll past the tree, getting smacked in the face by a branch that seemed to have to bend a lot further to reach her. John was chuckling loudly behind us as she repeated it a few more times, each time getting smacked by a different branch on various parts of her body. "Good job!" She praised with her thumb up in the air. I knew that she was going to ask me to break the enchantment next so I just called my magic to my palms and broke it before she could ask. "I'm impressed, I thought it would take a lot longer for you to learn this stuff but you are taking to it like a duck to water." Mabel pointed out. I just shrugged my shoulders at her. "Well, she is born from one of the most powerful witches that existed. I am not surprised it all comes naturally to her." John joined in on the conversation as he walked towards us. He stopped next to me and pulled me closer to him, kissing the top of my head and whispering, "I, for one, am very proud of you Clara. You impress me more and more every day." I beamed with pride at the fact that the two most important people in my life were proud of me. I had never had anyone in my life be proud of me for anything except Mary and she was never allowed to show it. "What I came down here for was to let you know that the kitchen has set up the spot you requested and it is ready. They have laid out everything you asked them to as well. So go on and make use of it." He leaned down and pressed his lips to mine quickly. Turning on his heel, he walked briskly back into the palace without another word. Mabel started to bounce up and down again and I laughed happily at her. "Let us go! Quickly!" She said, grabbing my arm and dragging me along behind her.

We arrived in the kitchen and Mabel led me straight into the back of it to a table that had been set up with a giant cauldron on it and various herbs and powders arranged around it. "Potion making!" I exclaimed. Mabel chuckled then turned very serious, "You are correct. There are a ton of different potions that you can make. From lethal ones to positive ones to ones that grow your hair. Potions make anything possible. But you must get them correct down to the simplest detail or you will not have the reaction you expect from it. One time I missed an ingredient and had hair grow from my armpits down to my toes." I widened my eyes at her, not having known how dangerous it was until now. "We are going to start with a simple potion, one that will make your nails grow." She said, looking pointedly down at my chewed-up, raggedy nails. I tried to defend myself, "They are not that bad!" She scoffed at me, "Whatever you say, Clara. Let us get started." She started by grabbing a glass of water and pouring most of it into the bottom of the cauldron, then as she grabbed herbs to add them, she explained the use for each one before she dropped them in. By the end of it, we had ended up with a disgusting-looking, murky brown liquid that was steaming. She ladled most of it up into a glass for me and handed it over. "Drink it. I am certain it is correctly made." I trusted Mabel so I tipped the glass up and gagged the nasty liquid down. Immediately my fingertips started to tingle and burn at the same time. I pulled my hands up to my face and watched my nails grow to a ridiculous length. This would never be practical for me; I would have to find a knife later to shave some of it off. Triumph showed all over Mabel's features as she pumped her fist in the air. "That was amazing. I want you to teach me as much as you can before the day is over!" I urged her and she nodded in agreement. She picked up a bunch of herbs we had not used for the nail potion and started to explain their uses, I listened intently.

I flopped down into my bed late in the night, exhausted beyond belief from all the training I had done. My brain felt like mush and my legs were aching from being on them most of the day. I somewhat hoped that John would stay in his room tonight so that I was not distracted and could get adequate sleep. That thought was blown away in the wind when a knock sounded at my bedroom door and in stepped John carrying a small box full of stuff. "Hi, I do not think you should-" He raised his hand, interrupting me. "I know that you are tired, you have had a long day. I will not stay long; I just have something I think that you should have." I raised my eyebrows at him in question as he continued talking, "As you probably already know, your aunt and uncle did not clean out your old home after your parents passed. Father and I went and cleaned out anything we thought was memorable or important and put it in this box. We held onto it in hope that you would return to us someday." He walked over to the bed and set the box down in front of me. I just stared at it in shock, not knowing what to say. He sat down next to me and pulled me into his arms. Then he gestured for me to begin to look through the box, but still, I hesitated. "If you would like to go through it alone, I have no problem leaving so that you can," he said gently. I shook my head, "I do not remember much of my parents, just a few happy memories. I am scared that what I find in this box will tarnish those happy memories." I confessed. He looked down at me and shook his head in denial. "There is nothing in that box that shows your parents in an ill light. Your parents were wonderful people, it is most definitely reflected in the belongings we collected from the home. They did not own much besides what is in this box." I took a deep breath and looked inside the box. The first thing on top was a well-done family portrait, a smiling baby sat on her exhilarated father's lap while her mother kissed the top of her head. The father was a handsome man with a handlebar mustache. The mother was beautiful, her long blonde hair fanned out around her and the baby girl. Tears sprung to my eyes and I fought back a sob. John started to rub my back upon seeing I was upset. I picked up the picture and turned it around, finding elegant swirly handwriting on the back. "Happy Birthday dear sister. I have never been prouder of someone in my life. Give Clara kisses for me. XO Ethel," It read. This had been a gift for my mother on her birthday from my aunt. I had a hard time believing that the same aunt that had abused me had written this note. Then again, the note she had written me previously explained her behavior. Still, I could not find it in me to forgive her just yet. John put his hand on my cheek and gently raised my head to face him then kissed me passionately. I kissed him back hard, my emotional state spurring me on. I felt him grin against my lips and then he pulled back. "You are always so eager, but we must not go so far yet," He said with amusement. I frowned at him in disappointment and then yawned loudly, "I will finish looking through this tomorrow. I am too tired tonight." He nodded and took my hand in his, kissing it and then standing up. "Goodnight, my pretty lady," he said, smiling warmly at me and walking out the bedroom door. I snuggled up in my blanket, laying my head on the blanket Mary had gifted me. As my eyelids grew heavy all I could think about was how much I missed her.